Category: Noumea 2023

Two months ago I received a QANTAS email about half price airfares to certain destinations. Noumea over the King’s birthday weekend looked great! Leave Friday and return Tuesday fits the bill nicely. Our on ground experience confirmed that this is the perfect getaway.

Come Tuesday morning we board our flight and wait. Half hour after our departure time an announcement from the captain confirms our worst fears. Engine malfunction no replacement part, flight cancelled. As there are few flights out of Noumea on any given day we lined up got ,our instructions, and back to Noumea for the night. Very late that night after a commiseration dinner of foie gras and truffled brie, a text message had us on an early flight out the next morning.

A 4:30 wake up on Wednesday to get us there and we have a different plane at the air bridge but eventually the same result. Engine troubles, no fix, flight cancelled. Another 1 hour drive back to Noumea and over lunch a text to say we are on the 5 pm flight out to Brisbane and then to Melbourne. This time our flight leaves Noumea but 45 minutes late and too late for our connecting flight to Melbourne which is the last one leaving Brisbane. As we land in Brisbane the text message drops to reticket our flight to Thursday morning. Our 4 hour flight takes 3 days and our long weekend morphs into a week away sadly with the last 3 days being waits in airports, queues and multiple 1 hour drives between Noumea and the airport. First world problems to be sure but after 2 full days lost income those half price airfares don’t look like such a bargain after all.

King’s birthday Monday has us driving out again, this time to the east coast. I am now well used to the left hand manual rental car and driving on the right side of the road. The road is wide, sealed and good until after the Blue River Park. Beyond this it rapidly deteriorates and is heavily rutted, potholed and has rough speed humps.

Beyond the village of Yate we reach the pretty Wandiana Falls before turning back to Noumea.

Our final stop for the day is Ouen Toro lookout, a former military installation overlooking Noumea.

Sunday sees us at Port Moselle, the harbour of Noumea boarding the boat for a 1 hour trip to Amedee Island. Fringed by coral reefs this tiny speck of sand in the ocean is part of a much larger coral reef that is second in size only to our Great Barrier Reef. As such the 56metre light house built in the reign of Napoleon the third is an important navigational aid.

While the waters were too cold to go swimming or snorkelling we had a lovely day walking on the pristine white sand beach, climbing the lighthouse for a bird’s eye view of the island and fish and turtle watching in a glass bottom boat. Lunch and wine were provided and we were gobsmacked by the restaurant quality food on offer in a beachside picnic setup.

Lighthouse

Captain James Cook was the first European to sight New Caledonia in 1774 on his second voyage.  He felt that the northeast coast of the island resembled Scotland, hence the name.  Four years later the similarly accomplished French explorer La Perouse sailed past the island group before mysteriously disappearing.

It was in 1853 that the emperor Napoleon 111  ordered a French naval fleet to take possession of the island group and established a penal colony there until 1880. The effect of European colonisation had an all too familiar impact on the local, indigenous, Kanak population which was decimated by outbreaks of measles and smallpox.

After the second world war New Caledonia became an overseas French colony and all citizens were granted French citizenship. The decades since has seen uneasy relations between the Kanaks and the French with several uprisings. Nonetheless multiple referendums to gain independence have failed and the country is very much French.

Noumea, the capitol is a quiet little town. Our Saturday morning 1 hour stroll was more than enough time to “see the sights”

The afternoon has us driving through the mountainous spine of the island into the countryside. While there is certainly much similarity with other tropical Pacific islands with mountains, palm trees and tropical rainforest, there are also vast tracts lightly forested hillsides, grasslands and even massive lakes that contrast this pretty island from others.

When it is one of the last vestiges of the former French colonial empire. These countries are defined as departments of France and are as much a part of France as say Paris is. The citizens vote in the French elections and send parliamentary representatives to Paris. They do not have a seat at the UN. Of the four “non countries” I have visited namely Tahiti, French Guyana, America Samoa and now New Caledonia three belong to France.

Frances colonial record is not a happy one. Decolonisation in the 20th century produced some distinctly messy outcomes, witness Vietnam, Algeria and much of West Africa. Nonetheless these last vestiges of French colonial rule are charming little outposts and none more so than New Caledonia and its capitol Noumea a short 1 hour fliht north east of Brisbane. Fortunately for visitors the French invariably leave one outstanding legacy, to die for French cuisine. Our first night in Noumea sees us walking through a tropical downpour to an overwater restaurant, Le Roof, and has me in seventh heaven with Foie Gras, Mangrove crab and tarte tatin washed down with a smart Bordeaux.